5 replies to this topic

[hkeziah]

I see how tasks create activities, but I don't understand how to create an activity that documents phone calls and emails.

[Jason]

I see how tasks create activities, but I don't understand how to create an activity that documents phone calls and emails.

You can add a note under an account or contact for example. That is how you should document calls and emails. Another option for emails is to use the email archiving mechanism so you can archive email directly from your email client.

[hkeziah]

I guess I'm not well versed in CRM proper, but isn't a phone call an activity. As a manager looking at activities seems the logical place to look for what is going on with an opportunity or account. Putting phone calls in notes means I'd have to look at two locations to get a big picture of the total attention paid to the opportunity/Account.

If I'm totally misunderstanding the philosophy of CRM I'm sure willing to learn how to apply it properly. Just not sure where to learn.

Thanks.

[Jason]

I guess I'm not well versed in CRM proper, but isn't a phone call an activity. As a manager looking at activities seems the logical place to look for what is going on with an opportunity or account. Putting phone calls in notes means I'd have to look at two locations to get a big picture of the total attention paid to the opportunity/Account.

If I'm totally misunderstanding the philosophy of CRM I'm sure willing to learn how to apply it properly. Just not sure where to learn.

Thanks.

To clarify, are you logging past calls or wanting to schedule upcoming calls? If you want to schedule upcoming calls use meetings, and set the category as Call. You can actually use meetings too for past calls as well. But notes works too, because all past activity (notes, meetings, tasks) show up under latest activities.

[raysto]

I guess I'm not well versed in CRM proper, but isn't a phone call an activity. As a manager looking at activities seems the logical place to look for what is going on with an opportunity or account. Putting phone calls in notes means I'd have to look at two locations to get a big picture of the total attention paid to the opportunity/Account.

If I'm totally misunderstanding the philosophy of CRM I'm sure willing to learn how to apply it properly. Just not sure where to learn.

Thanks.

You bring up an good point about CRM best practices. In a typical CRM, there are a variety of ways to log information against a record. In Zurmo, you have "Tasks", "Meetings", and "Notes" (also there are "Emails" assuming you have this setup). All of these show up under "Activities" once they are completed or past the date they were held. For Tasks, once you check off the box and complete it, it will show under Activities. Once a Meeting goes beyond the day it was scheduled, it shows up under Activities. For Notes, it immediately shows up under Activities. All these actions are done by design so that you can see what has been completed and what is still outstanding.

In your example, a phone call can be an upcoming Meeting or it could be a Task you need to complete or you could have just had the call and want to enter a Note. The CRM gives you the flexibility to do whatever you want and enter it as such. I would suggest standardizing your flows so that everyone uses the system the same. You can train your staff to use Tasks for upcoming phone calls that need to be scheduled. Then you can have them enter the call notes under the completed Task (under the Description field) or you can have your users simply add a Note every time they have a phone call. Does that make sense? The Roll Up feature allows you to see all Activities for all connected objects: http://zurmo.org/tut...s-on-an-account

[hkeziah]

Thanks, Ray. I was over thinking and should have been just playing with the system. Now if I could just get my accounts imported...